Dear Oracle
by missmeparadox
Summary: The Oracle is the anonymous recipient of every letter submit to the school paper's advice column. This comes with having the inside information of the student body's lives, struggles, and relationships. Alternatively titled "Where Rachel gives out some halfway-decent advice and everyone else just wants to make out and graduate".
1. Nemo

**Dear Oracle,**

 **There's this girl in my homeroom that I've liked for a while. Really smart, really pretty, and REALLY out of my league. A friend told me that I should write to you for advice on how to handle this. I tried asking her for some tips, but they haven't exactly been… effective.**

 **-Nemo**

* * *

"Get her diamonds," Piper shrugged, waving a french fry through the air for emphasis, "shoes work too. Jewelry. Candy. Expensive stuff that will have you in debt for years. Girls love that."

"Dude, we both know that I can't afford anything like that," Percy sighed in exasperation.

"So? You want a girlfriend, you get a job."

"I have a job."

"You're a lifeguard, and a shitty one at that. That isn't a job." Piper nudged her best friend in the arm. "Check out that one, eleven o'clock behind you."

Percy turned and scanned the classroom, two blondes hunching over a laptop near the most intimidating girl in the state catching his eye quickly. "Jason?"

"Yep. He's in my Honors Government class. Whaddya think?"

"Well," Percy began ticking off fingers, "he's class president, popular, probably helps old women cross the street, and is essentially everything that you aren't. I can see more than one problem with this."

"He's also a gentleman, which is more than you can say about yourself."

"Touché. So, are you going to talk to him or keep staring?"

"Relax, I have a plan," Piper smirked through another mouthful of fries. While Tristan McLean could hardly be reached, his assistant, Mellie, was happy to pick up lunch for the two when asked nicely. The two sat and ate their McDonald's in the ridiculously loud study hall. At the other end of the rows of desks, Annabeth Chase was singlehandedly demonstrating a new budgeting plan to the other student council members, covering for their treasurer, Frank, so that he could spend time with his girlfriend before their next class.

"So if we transfer some of the profits from the Fall Festival and move them," she clicked several keys, bringing a large pie chart onto the screen, "then we can increase the dance committee funding."

"And then we can afford to have formal in May." Reyna gave one of her rare smiles. "Very nice, Chase."

"We still need a theme, for the fliers and decorations we need to order." Jason added. "Annabeth, do you still have the list of options from last time?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I do." She opened a new file and scrolled through her notes. "Looks like our options are 'Black and White', 'The 50's', 'Masquerade', and 'Red Carpet'. What do you guys think?" Reyna furrowed her brow in thought, but Jason only stared intently at some point across the sea o their classmates.

"Still with us, Grace?" He shifted his gaze back to his fellow officers, sans treasurer.

"I was just, um, watching Piper and Percy. Seeing if they were actually doing anything for once." The three subtly turned in their seats to catch a glimpse of Percy with two straws in his mouth, imitating a walrus, while Piper snorted with laughter next to him.

"Charming, aren't they?" Reyna mused.

"Percy's in homeroom with me again this year. He seems nice enough, but I'm almost positive that he hasn't turned in any classwork since middle school." Annabeth shuddered.

"I have French with Piper, but she at least seems to do the work assigned there. I can't see how, the verbs are too complicated for me." Jason sighed.

"You should have taken Latin with Frank and I," Reyna shrugged, "it can actually be fun sometimes."

Their grey-eyed secretary turned back to her laptop as they continued their banter, unaware of Percy's eyes focused on her.

* * *

Annabeth _literally_ ran into Percy Jackson on her way out of her Biology class as school let out, causing every book in her arms to drop to the floor.

"Sorry!" Percy leaned down to grab a textbook that she had also reached for, knocking their heads together with a thud. The two groaned and mumbled apologies as they gathered the books. Percy's mind went blank as she stood, nearly his height, and didn't catch a word of what she was saying.

"Excuse me?"

She looked worried. "I didn't hit your head that hard, did I? Should I take you to the nurse?"

"I, uh, No. I just," he held out a thick stack of books in front of him with stiff arms, "you dropped these."

"Thanks for that." She maneuvered the pile into her own arms and steadied them. She lifted her head to speak again before noticing exactly whom she had collided with. "Long time no see, Percy."

"I could say the same for you," He smiled even though he felt like his heart were in his mouth, "how's student council working out for you?"

She sighed. "Still busy as ever planning. Reyna and the guys still have me working until the last minute for everything."

"So like, the same as always?"

She laughed, but paled when her eyes met the clock on the wall. She was going to be late. "Look. I have a meeting in a few minutes, so…"

Shit, she was leaving. He had to say something fast. This may be the only time that they would talk all week. Excuses, think excuses! "Want me to walk you down? I have swim practice today."

"You're still on the swim team?"

Was it really that shocking? Percy felt more than a little embarrassed by her bewildered expression. "Yeah, so I can walk you to your meeting and then head to the gym, since I would be staying late anyways." Please work please work please work…

"Sure, if you don't mind." Annabeth smiled and started down the hallway, with Percy mouthing 'thank you' at the ceiling before jogging to catch up with her.

* * *

 **Dear Nemo,**

 **Your friend was right about coming to me, you sound a little stranded! If you're interested in this girl, just try breaking the ice. Find out some things that the two of you have in common and make some small talk to start. Stay casual and be yourself, and I can assure you that everything will turn out fine. Go get her, fish boy!**

 **-The Oracle, New Roman Times**

* * *

"What idiot came up with that name? It doesn't even begin to make sense!"

"It's a pun, Octavian," Rachel explained as if she were speaking to a kindergartener, "Times New Roman? New Roman Times? Its perfect! It goes great with the design, and we even have our own Oracle!"

"Romans didn't even 'have' oracles!"

"Oh hush. Now, go review the final copies while I finish up."

Octavian huffed and kicked his swivel chair to the desk that he had claimed in freshman year to begin skimming the newspaper that rested atop of it. Rachel had insisted that he stuck around until six rather than five to finish the issues for the week, while she read through the letters sent to the paper's advice column. "Are you still working on those? In case you haven't gotten it through that obnoxiously red head of yours, these need to be out by tomorrow."

"Will you relax? I have like, three left. How's your stuff looking?"

"Fine, just like how they did when I did them the first time."

"Then go home already, I'll just scan these in with the responses before I close up shop."

Octavian muttered some form of a thank-you and grabbed his backpack, pausing to lean over Rachel's shoulder and study a sloppily scrawled letter on her desk. "What do these idiots even write to you about?"

"They aren't idiots, idiot, they're my adoring readers. The letters that I receive are actually rather interesting." He arched an eyebrow and made a "go on" gesture. She cleared her throat and made a show of shuffling through a fat stack of envelopes.

"A guy who calls himself "Gk", see the little skull, is griping about his new lab partner for the semester, "Nemo" has the hots for a girl way too good for him, and someone waaay too formal to be stuck in here is having trouble with planning some important whatever with one of the sports team captain's."

"Doesn't it feel at all weird to you that complete strangers are writing you these letters?"

"Oh please, it's not like they know its me. Besides, I have a good idea about who they are. Nico di Angelo, the broody kid? He must be the Ghost King, Reyna is the stick-up-the-butt, and Percy is obviously Nemo talking about Annabeth Chase!" she exclaimed.

"So you always know these identities?" She could have been wrong, but she swore that he sounded almost afraid.

"Well," Rachel chewed her lip thoughtfully, "there have been some letters from random people that started coming in after winter break, signed anonymously, you know. Its harder to track them down."

Octavian rolled his eyes and once again made his way towards the door, only to pause. Again. So much for leaving on time. "How many of those did you say that you had left?" "Three or so, they're all in my mailbox over there. Mind bringing them over?"

He sighed dramatically and shuffled over to a purple box near the trash bin, painted with swirls of green and gold. Octavian halted for a moment when he was absolutely sure that Rachel was not paying attention that he did something so idiotic and childish that it would haunt him for nights to come. Not exactly in the way that you would expect, however. The blond dropped a neatly folded piece of notebook paper into the cardboard box and left without saying a word.

"Thanks, asshole." Rachel yelled after him.

"Anytime."


	2. Beauty Queen

Dear Oracle,

So there's this boy, and he's essentially perfect. I'm thinking about going on the offensive and asking him out. I'm pretty sure he likes me back (Ha, I wish) but the thing is he's probably way too good for me. Any advice?

-Beauty Queen

* * *

Piper slouched in her chair, staring lazily up at the ceiling and balancing her pencil on her upper lip with intensity that rivaled that which she used in swimming and surfing.

It's not that she was intentionally tuning out their French teacher, Monsieur O'Malley (whose name and dubious accent did not loan confidence to the probably flawed information he was giving then), but the class was just so… boring.

And to make the entire thing even more unbearable than it already was, out the window she could see the sunny sky and the breeze that ruffled the leaves of the trees in the parking lot. It was April, and already she had seen ideal surfing conditions. It was also, however, Thursday, so it would only be two more days until she could drag Percy to the beach and try to beat some more lessons into his thick head.

"Mademoiselle McLean? Savez-vous ou est la Guyane Français?" She snapped to attention, sitting up in her chair and focusing her eyes on the short, balding teacher at the front of the room, already easily deciphering his horrible accent in her head.

"Le Guyane Français est située en l'Amerique du Sud, Monsieur," Piper replied immediately, smirking when he scowled at her. He'd asked her where French Guinea was located, and she'd easily replied that it was in South America.

Amateur.

Obviously, Monsieur O'Malley had yet to realize that he wouldn't be able to catch her off guard, not while his classes were so easy and her uncanny gift that allowed for French to come so easily to her.

"Tres bien, Mademoiselle," he ground out, glaring at her idle smirk. "Now class, please flip to page one-hundred thirty…" and Piper tuned him out again. She flicked her eyes to the clock at the front of the room, making sure she groaned loud enough that Monsieur O'Malley could hear her when she saw there were still fifteen minutes left before she could escape. He flicked his eyes in her direction again, looking like he could cheerfully throttle her.

Sighing again, she fixed her eyes on her one source of entertainment in this god-awful class. Three rows to the front, two seats to the right.

Jason Grace, president of the grade, Superman lookalike and her longtime object of affection. She could still remember the impromptu celebration she and Percy had thrown at the beginning of the year when they'd found out that they both had classes with their crushes.

So now, seven months later, her sole source of pleasure in this tedious lesson was still the back of Jason's head.

Which was totally not creepy. Not at all.

But really, it just wasn't fair. Even looking at the back of his head, a blind man could see that Jason was ridiculously good-looking. The dude was prettier than Piper. It simply wasn't fair that someone could be so attractive when they were confused, or happy, or upset, or-

Okay, Piper. Get a grip! No swooning over Grace and his blond hair and blue, blue eyes, and that funny little scar on his lip, or how he was always so polite and intelligent…

Oh god. She really needed to get over this infatuation.

Resolutely slouching in her chair and bringing her hands to her hair to start twisting braids, she forced all thoughts of Jason out of her head and turned her attention to coming up for the workout for swimming practice that day.

Even thinking about trying to keep Percy from drowning while he tried to catch glimpses of Annabeth was better than fantasizing about Jason-freaking-Grace. But she had to grin a little, thinking about what she had planned for Jason, the poor boy wouldn't even know what had hit him.

* * *

Piper stood with Percy on the deck of the pool, watching the rest of the team as they stretched before practice.

Due to the pool being indoors, near the locker rooms, the water this semester was comfortable enough to swim in without the entire team contracting hypothermia. Which could be difficult to explain to the teachers.

"Percy, stop looking around like that. I swear, your head looks like a swivel chair," Piper hissed, elbowing him in the side.

He cast her a mock-wounded look, clasping a hand over his heart. "You cut me deep, McLean. I think I may die from the pain!" He dropped to one knee and pretended to keel over.

Piper just rolled her eyes, already used to his antics, and then grinned evilly. "Hey look, Percy, there's Annabeth! I think she's looking this way!" She nearly burst out laughing at how fast he shot to his feet and looked around, and she could practically see a wagging tail as if he were some hyperactive puppy.

"Where? Seriously, Piper, where is she-" he cut off abruptly when Piper could no longer contain her peals of laughter, and she only laughed harder at the look of utter disgust he sent her.

"Y-Your face!" Piper wheezed, barely able to breathe. "God, you were practically shaking with excitement!" She laughed again with new purpose when some members of the swim team started chuckling with her. Some of them had known Piper and Percy since they joined the team in their freshman year. She could still vividly remember what had prompted them to join.

* * *

It had been the end of the first Friday of their first week at this school, and Piper had been looking forward to going home and kicking back for the weekend, preferably with a stack of Disney movies and several large bowls of popcorn and chocolate, and sans the ridiculous stack of homework she had been assigned. The ridiculous stack of homework she had plans of ignoring until Sunday night when she would get it all done at the last possible second.

She had been walking down the hallway towards the front doors; her backpack weighed down by her numerous textbooks, when she'd heard her best friend shout her name, almost hysterically.

"Piper! Piper, wait up!" She sighed and turned, seeing Percy sprinting down the hallway as fast as his stuffed backpack would allow. He skidded to a stop next to her, panting and red faced, as though he'd been running all over the school looking for her.

"Pipes- she- I said- we were-" Percy gasped in incoherent monosyllabic words, clearly to excited or flustered or maybe just plain out of breath to say anything even remotely understandable.

"Dude," Piper held one hand up and waved it in front of Percy's face, trying to gesture for him to calm down. "Breathe and tell me what happened."

Percy took a deep breath, but the longer he spent trying to even his breathing, the redder his face turned, and Piper was beginning to become concerned.

"Percy. Percy!" His eyes snapped to hers, and his breathing calmed.

"Okay," he began. "So you know Annabeth Chase?"

Piper's eyes shot up to her hairline. Annabeth Chase? Percy had had a crush on the blonde since at least fifth grade, and it seemed she had finally noticed that he existed. Piper had been friends with Annabeth for nearly as long, and they had a tradition of stealing each other's food at lunch when they sat together. Still, she had never paid Percy much attention.

"What about Annabeth?" Piper asked cautiously, curious about how that conversation had gone down. She knew Percy was barely capable of stringing two words together around her.

"So my Algebra class got held up and we were the last ones out, and so we started talking-"

"What? You? Were able to speak to Annabeth Chase without babbling incoherently? It's a miracle!" She nearly dropped to her knees, but she could tell with the weight of her backpack she would practically break her kneecaps and decided against it.

"Shut up, Beauty Queen," Percy snapped, making Piper raised an eyebrow. Her best friend only called her that when he was telling her something important. Or if she had worn a dress for her Dad's sake. "Anyway, she said she was going to be running for student council, which I think is a great idea since, well, she's brilliant and clever and she's obviously going to be elected-"

"Percy. Get to the point," Piper interrupted, amused at how Percy was unable to control his tongue when Annabeth wasn't even there.

"Okay, so I told her it was a great idea and then she asked if I was going to be doing any clubs, and I panicked and told her we were both going to be trying out for the swim team," Percy finished in a rush.

Piper let her head fall back with a groan. "Of course. Naturally when you go get yourself into these messes, you just have to drag me into them with you, don't you?"

Percy clasped his hands together, giving her his best impression of puppy dog eyes. "Please, Piper? Please please please?" Piper groaned and considered her options for a moment. Percy had always excelled at swimming, and she knew that it would help with her with her surfing.

Before she could changer her mind she blurted, "Fine, I'll do it." Percy had shouted once and threw his arms around her, apparently doing his best to squeeze the life out of her.

"Thanks, Pipes! You're the best. Seriously."

* * *

Piper smirked, remembering how excited Percy had been about Annabeth acknowledging his existence. It had been two years since then, and the pair had finally progressed to occasionally exchanging small talk when they passed each other in the hallways.

But something had come out of Percy's unthinking declaration that day. Percy had been voted captain of the swim team with Piper as his co captain at the beginning of their junior year. They had both made friends on the team, to the point that they all knew about Percy's hopeless crush on Annabeth and they could laugh easily about Piper's teasing.

When Piper's laughter stopped, she barely had time to look up and register two things: two blond heads standing outside the pool gates and the mischievous glint in Percy's eyes just before he scooped her up and tossed her into the chilly water.

Asshole.

* * *

"But think about it, not only would it be easier to do a black and white dance, the decorations wouldn't be that big of a blow on the class budget. We could do some cookouts on the beach with the remainder of the money."

Annabeth shifted the weight of her enormous gray backpack on her shoulders and tried to listen as Jason argued his point that a 'Black and White' theme would be better for the Spring Dance, while she wanted to do a masquerade ball. She opened her mouth to say a convincing argument as to why a masquerade ball would be so much better (and her reasoning was not that she'd always wanted to wear a mask but something so logical that he would immediately see her side of things) but she was distracted suddenly by the sound of peals of laughter from the direction of the pool building, and both she and Jason looked up.

Piper and Percy were standing inside the gates while the swim team stretched, Piper doubled over with laughter while Percy stood over her, looking disgruntled.

And no, her eyes didn't linger on his muscular legs under his green swimsuit and his bare chest and the goggles dangling around his neck. And the casual, friendly air around the two didn't send a pang through her chest at all. She was just… hungry. Because she'd skipped lunch to have a student council meeting. That was the reason. She saw way the rest of the swim team chuckled at the pair's antics, and couldn't resist a little laugh herself. The two had caused more than their fair share of trouble during their time in high school, and they could be found in detention after school many days.

But when Piper stood up and glanced over in Annabeth's direction for a moment just before Percy scooped her up and tossed her into the pool Annabeth couldn't resist breaking out into what sounded like suppressed giggling.

Percy immediately looked up, as though searching for the source of her laughter and when he made eye contact with her for a moment, his warm green eyes did not make her knees a little weak. Nope, not at all.

So when Piper came up for air, sputtering curses and splashing water at Percy, Annabeth turned away and waved goodbye to Jason without really seeing him and briskly walked down the path towards home. Which was why she didn't see how Percy's eyes lingered on her back for long moments before he turned and jumped into the pool, dousing Piper and nearly drowning her with a tidal wave. It was also why she didn't see the way Jason hesitated for a moment, his eyes tracing Piper's head floating in the water before he too made his way home.

For all that she was possibly the smartest girl in the junior year, Annabeth could be pretty oblivious to certain things.

* * *

 **Dear Beauty Queen,**

 **My advice is to just go for it! It's about time a girl decided to take the initiative around here! A lot of people tend to overthink how to ask their crush out, so make sure you don't plan it out too carefully. If you do you might get flustered and panic. If you think he likes you back, then just act like you normally do. After all, it's you he likes and he should appreciate you just being comfortable around him.**

 **You've got this, girl!**

 **-The Oracle, New Roman Times**

* * *

"Hey, Octavian, check this out!" Rachel called to the blond, waving a paper excitedly through the air at her co-editor as he wrestled with their demon printer, which, he was convinced, was a vessel for the antichrist.

"Hang on, Lucifer's about to spit out that article on the science fair next month-" sounds of the printer beeping and hissing could be heard across the room, followed by silence.

"Octavian? You still with me?" Rachel asked, only slightly concerned.

"False alarm. The little fucker is attempting to bait me into another match, where it will undoubtedly launch a potentially fatal counter-attack. But no matter," Octavian threw down his paper and stormed away from the counter. "I will not be fooled! I will live and fight another day."

The redhead had to laugh at Octavian's antics. When they had first started working together on the newspaper in their sophomore year, she had been somewhat put off by his cold demeanor. But after a month or two, she had discovered his only a little twisted sense of humor, coupled with the fact that he was a total nerd under that glare. Still an asshole, but not entirely horrible.

"Are you sure you don't want to attack now? Strike while it's not expecting it?" she teased, ever-amused by the epic saga of Octavian versus their office supplies.

"Dare, you mock me!" Octavian said with a huff, even as he rounded her desk to see the letter she had been waving through the air.

"Okay, listen to this," Rachel started eagerly, flourishing the paper in front of her and dramatically clearing her throat. "Dear Oracle-"

"So someone's going to ask Jason out? Do you know who it is?" Octavian interrupted, obviously having finished the letter already.

Rachel spun around and gave him an incredulous look, the letter lying forgotten on her desk. "Octavian! You were supposed to let me read it! I did the dramatic throat clearing and everything." She groaned once, and but shrugged off her annoyance as when her green eyes brightened again. "Okay, so anyway I'm positive the writer is Piper. I mean seriously, Beauty Queen? Who else would write that? But I didn't know she liked Jason."

"I'm pretty sure that you were the only one who didn't. You and Jason, that is." He shrugged. "Was that the last one?"

"One more," she tore into a plain envelope, "oh, I know this one!"

"You do?" he gulped as he recognized the print that he had adopted to disguise his normal handwriting by using his right hand. This could end badly, to say the least.

"Yeah, they wrote last week. I think that I have a secret admirer or something."

"Is he blind?" "Don't you have a printer to wrestle with?"

"You win this round, traitor."


	3. Anonymous

If there was one thing that Reyna hated more than deciphering Jason's French homework for him, it was translating his older sister to the rest of the student council.

Because of the upcoming sport's banquet for the teams at school, it had been deemed her responsibility to speak to all of the captains and finalize everything before the end of the second quarter, mostly Due to her impeccable ability to scare the life out of even the most bullheaded of football captains. However, there was one variable that hadn't been accounted for. A variable incredibly frustrating, Reyna had decided, in more ways than one.

Thalia Grace. More specifically, Thalia and the fourteen girls under her command on the girl's varsity lacrosse team.

Due to poor planning on the part of every team captain on her list, Reyna had arrived at school at six this morning to meet with everyone. On account of even poorer planning by Thalia herself, it was now nearing on eight forty five and she was just now making her way over to the dark lacrosse fields, a fleeting sense of panic in her chest when she realized that Thalia may not even be here.

The fist-sized ball that nearly met her face a moment later proved otherwise.

"OH THIT!" someone ran to her from the darkness, tall and tanned with a mop of dark hair messily slicked back away from her headpiece. Reyna stood, dumbstruck, as one very sweaty and flustered Thalia skidded to a stop in front of her. She stood only a few inches above her own height, though the glow of moonlight made her seem ethereal in the darkness surrounding them.

Reyna only hoped that Hylla would arrive early to pick her up and save her from dealing with this.

"Thorry about that," she stopped to spit a blue mouth guard into her palm, then slipping it into the pocket of her shorts, "didn't bean you or anything, did I? Could've sworn that the net was around here somewhere."

She cleared her throat in an attempt to seem more formal, straightening her back and setting her lips into a thin line. "No, I'm alright. You're the team captain for women's lacrosse? We were supposed to meet today."

"So you must be Reyna, was it?" The older girl laughed to herself. "Jason talks about you sometimes I guess." So much for avoiding embarrassment, "You mind if we walk and talk? I've got all my stuff in the locker rooms."

"I thought that the school closed those up at six except for game days? How would you-"Thalia fished a set of keys from her pocket, jangling them with a smile and laughing at the single raised eyebrow Reyna gave in response.

"So I just needed some information from you regarding the banquet in December?" Reyna cleared her throat awkwardly, averting her eyes as Thalia shrugged out of her practice jersey and shimmied into a tank top, not afraid of changing in front of others, apparently.

"Like what? Oh, and can you pass me my shoes," a pair of blue flip-flops met her hand, "Thanks."

"Seating arrangements?"

"Yeah, so we're going to need enough chairs for the girls, don't worry about extras for dates or whatever, we kind of have a ban against guys, so most of the girls just abstain entirely from that stuff."

"You have a ban against dating? All of you?" Reyna ignored the clenching in her chest, attributing it to hunger rather than disappointment. Sure, maybe her eyes lingered on the muscles at the small of Thalia's back a bit longer than they probably should have, but it was better than her staring outright at her chest whenever she turned.

Oh god, it was too late to be doing this.

"Nah, just against guys hanging around. No one really cracked down on it until the whole mess with Callista a few years ago, but hey, rules are rules."

"Callista Arcas? Didn't she-"

"Fuck a college guy? Yeah, she got pregnant and Coach nearly had a fit. Banned her and the jackass from ever showing their faces anywhere near here."

"Appropriate, I suppose."

"Tell me about it. Anyways, ever since, no one around here has really had a date to any games or whatever. The gay kids get the exception, though."

Reyna must have made some sort of face as a reaction, because in a moment Thalia was in her face, smile hardened into an accusing glower. "Is that a problem, miss President?"

"Not at all, I just didn't know that-"

"That what? That not everyone around here fit into some perfect little box like people like to think they should? Yeah, a lot of the girls on my team are gay or bi or something, including me." Thalia was only inches away from her now, eyes full of wrath and this shouldn't be as attractive as she thinks oh god what's wrong with her.

"And I don't have a problem with that!" She fumbled over the words, but let out a small sigh when the older girl stepped away from her, casting a disbelieving look her way. "I-I was just wondering if anyone would need extra chairs for dates if they wanted to come, or whatever you want!" Luckily, her voice remained mostly level, her tinge of an accent hiding the parts of her spiel where it hiked embarrassingly.

Thalia hesitated before smiling at her once more, "no need, pretty much everyone is single. Sorry for cracking down on you so hard, it's kind of a reflex. No hard feelings?" Reyna eyed the hand before her with slight caution, almost worrying that she was being tricked and that she'd never get her job done if the last captain on her list held a grudge.

"Hey," Thalia said, softly this time, "you're fine. How about I give you a ride home and we can sort out whatever you need to know. Deal? I promise that I wont bite your head off again."

Maybe she was crazy, or she could have sworn that she had seen her wink behind the fringe of black hair covering Thalia's eyes.

"Deal." Her palm was a bit sweaty, but she hoped that Thalia wouldn't notice.

(She did).

* * *

 **Dear Anonymous, Hehe, sounds to me like there's a bit more between you and "The Most Frustrating Person On Earth" than just frustration, from the way that you talk about them. Just my professional opinion!**

 **Now, I think that the best way to go about this situation would be to just play things neutral and see how they respond. I'm sure that things will go smoothly!**

 **Good luck!**

 **-The Oracle, New Roman Times**


	4. Unanswered

Nico awoke with his eyes glued shut from tears and the realization that he had accidentally fallen asleep with the radio on. Again.

His head felt as if it were being shredded, and in this moment, he remembered how he had laughed at Bianca whenever she attempted to describe what she endured every month, how he had taken the mentions of her pain with a grain of salt.

The thoughts didn't sit well, and he tried to imagine the memories disappearing down the toilet along with last night's dinner.

Still, he practically crawled on his hands and knees back to his bedroom, ignoring the annoyed huff of his stepmother as he nearly kicked her cat, Rosie, in the side as he rounded the corner. His stomach had refused to hold anything down since dinner on Monday night, and he could only be thankful that today's classes would be cut short (having your dad acting as Dean of students meant knowledge of when fire drills were scheduled, thankfully).

"Nico?" His younger sister stood in the doorway, completely dressed save for the hairbrush hanging from her hair and elastics bunched around her wrist.

"You're up early." He remarked, still sweaty, as Hazel invited herself into his room, taking in the sloppy state he had been practically marinating in all morning.

"And you look like you slept under a bus." Her foot tapped impatiently on the floor until he sighed and made room for her to sit next to him.

"It's a new trend. Do you even read half of those magazines you're still subscribed to?" said magazines littered his floor as well as hers, as if the wall between their rooms had never existed.

"First of all," she rolled her eyes, settling into a familiar crease in his desk chair, "you know I like the colors, and don't hate me for being old fashioned."

His smile was, once again, cut short by another searing wave of cramps.

Hazel leaned in, pulling him towards her chest and rubbing at the small of his back, easing and unfurling the knotted muscles. He had stiffened before melting against her touch, almost feeling guilty.

She frowned. "You sure you're up for school today? I'm sure you could get a note from the nurse or something, and then Frank can drive you home."

As much as he did love his sister, the idea of being subjected to Frank's attempts at making small talk in his current condition made something inside of Nico's stomach lurch. "It's only a half day, I'll be fine," he conceded, rising unsteadily and unpeeling the sweat-soaked pajama shirt from his chest, "You know that people will start to notice if I stay home too much."

"Right, sorry." Hazel rose from the bed, hands smoothing the wrinkles in her red skirt carefully. She strode towards the half-opened closet door and opened it carefully (so as not to disturb the mounds of folders and notebooks settled around the door). "So what's it going to be today?"

Nico rubbed at his eyes and turned to face the mirror, wrinkling his nose as he took in the state of his body; mussed black hair, red cheeks, and sickly pale skin. He had to admit that he looked a lot better than he had freshman year, without the skinny frame and too-long hair that he had been meaning to cut for some time by then, and he decided to dwell on this small victory rather than beat himself up over how sick he felt.

Maybe the therapy sessions with Chiron were working out after all. He made a mental note to inform his father that this attempt at helping his son had been far more successful than any of the herbal remedies Persephone had suggested.

"Something black."

Hazel laughed, shaking her head. "Nice try, but you're going to have to be more specific. It's like staring into the void whenever I look in here." He supposed she had a bit of a point, as nearly all of the items in his closet consisted of various shades of black, and occasionally dark grey.

"It's universally flattering. And you call yourself a stylist."

"Yeah, well, remind me to get you some colorful stuff for Christmas. Or at least dark blue."

* * *

"Di Angelo!"

"Here" Nico attempted to refocus on the details of the sword he had been sketching into his notebook cover since the first week of the semester, but was interrupted by the sharp smack of a ruler against the top of his desk.

Seriously, a ruler? This wasn't the fifties.

"Now," the wrinkled bat of a teacher in front of him plastered what he assumed was meant to be a pleasant smile onto her face and spoke slowly, "had you been listening, Nico, you would have known that I was announcing the pairs for the upcoming projects, hm?"

What he wouldn't give to just walk out of here right now, run down the hallway, and scream. "Oh."

"Yes, well, "Ms. Rhoarty gestured to the others around him, already moving in a frenzy to their assigned partners, though some a bit more reluctant, "I'm sure that you will find Mr. Valdez to be a suitable match in making up for your 'distractions'," she adjusted her grip on the ruler and slowly made her way back to her desk, pausing to reprimand a few louder girls as Nico remained at his desk, still not quite sure whether or not he should move or wait.

"Hope you're better at Shakespeare than you are at looking inconspicuous," Leo greeted him, swinging his backpack and legs over the desk nearest to Nico before pulling his own closer to it.

Nico sighed. "Still not sure why you're still taking another English class when you've had, literally, years to complete credits." Leo had managed to land himself in every one of his classes since seventh grade, but was ages ahead of him in Math, somehow.

"Not all of us can be history buffs, dude," Nico only rolled his eyes and reached for the human torch (God, what a nerd) water bottle on Leo's desk, taking a swig despite the other's protests and promptly sputtering across the desk.

"What the hell Valdez!"

Leo shrugged and uncapped the bottle with one hand, and retrieved an ice cube from the inside before popping it into his mouth.

"Dad thought," he said, water dribbling slightly from the corners of his mouth, "the cold would make me feel something, get my mind off of cigs, y'know?"

Frankly, he didn't, but Nico nodded anyways, still miffed that Leo hadn't realized what those damn things were doing to his breath sooner but a little satisfied at the visible puffs of air emitting from his mouth like smoke from a dragon's. "Frostbite beats cancer, huh?"

"Shut up. How's it feel?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Like hell. I'm heading to the nurse," he scribbled out a pass on one of his index cards and slid it to Leo, who managed to pass a decent copy of Ms. Rhoarty's signature whilst shaking his head.

"I have pills here, you know."

"Nah, I've been meaning to catch up with Will anyways." Nico managed a wink before slouching out of the classroom while Ms. Rhoarty was nose-deep in a romance novel.

Thumbing through the copy of Romeo and Juliet that had been abandoned in Nico's haste to leave, Leo was almost struck with inspiration, but only shook his head as he dug out his iPod, allowing the music to drown out his classmates and rapid heartbeat.

* * *

 **Dear Oracle,**

 **How close do you have to be with a friend before telling them how important they are to you?**

 **-Anonymous**

* * *

 **Now playing your 5th saved message from Dare, Rachel:**

"Hey Octavian?"

 **Octavian Solace is not available to answer your call.**

"Please pick up?"

 **At the tone, please leave your message.**

"Octavian, please!"

 **-beep-**

"Octavian! It's… It's Rachel, alright? Look, I know you left already but I just had to check.

"Octavian if you're messing with me, I swear to god I'll quit the paper, it's not funny anymore!

"There's someone in the building… I thought I was locking up tonight?"

"I'm looking now, I swear if this is you I'll-"

 **End of message. Would you like to replay the message?**


	5. Pining

**Dear Oracle,**

 **My friend's sister is really pretty and I'm really nervous but I'm not usually and I don't know what to do about it because I think she could be straight and I'm really bad with reading things.**

**Help?**

 **-Pining**

* * *

 _ **Dear Pining,**_

 _ **Well I'm glad you asked! First, I would-**_

* * *

"BOO!"

Rachel nearly flung her laptop across the rom in shock, but did push her swivel chair backwards into the body of her attacker quickly enough to knock them off balance as well. They both fell to the floor with a _thud_.

Rachel drew her knees to her chest quickly, hands clawing desperately at the contents of her spilled backpack and coming back wit her hairbrush (a solid blue handle, nice). She raised it over her head, eyes shut, already picturing where her blow would land, how she would run-

"Rachel," Percy panted desperately, eyes wide and hands in the air, "Oh my god- I'm so sorry!" His voice cracked awkwardly mid-sentence, but still echoed in the office enough to seem nearly deafening.

"What was that for?" Rachel, though her heartbeat had yet to cease pounding beneath her throat, opted to instead smack him on the thigh with the smooth end of the brush. Her face was burning red, freckles nearly blending into the rest of her flushed skin. "You know I'm the last one in the building, right?"

"Well yeah," Percy nodded slowly, his back now resting against a filing cabinet, "I had to ask you something, but you were on the phone so I thought I'd wait around in the library."

"That's- you scared the hell out of me!" She huffed, tossing the hairbrush back into the pile of junk. She briefly thought back to the frantic phone calls she had made to Octavian's voicemail only around twenty minutes prior, before opting to finish the week's article anyways.

She resolved to text him later, at the least. Serves him right for not answering.

"I'm sorry for trying to mess with you, but your back was turned and it was the perfect opportunity and I couldn't," Percy took in a breath, "I need your advice."

"Write another letter then!" Rachel said offhandedly over her shoulder, already transferring her books back into her bag, "It's kind of the point of me being here anyways, you know?"

"I couldn't wait.'' He whined (whined, weren't they supposed to be seniors in like, two months?). "And it's important this time."

"Annabeth?"

"Am I really that obvious?" he sighed and drew his knees in to his chest, chin resting on his crossed arms.

"Well, yeah," Rachel offered him a sympathetic smile, crossing her legs to face him, "but it's cute, in a kind of 'lost puppy' sort of way, I mean."

"I don't want her to see me as some kid drooling over her though," he frowned, "everyone already sees me as some idiot that can't ever be serious for a minute. What if she does too?"

Rachel crinkled her nose, frowning, "What do you mean?"

Percy made a non-committal sort of gesture with his hand, "Its like- everyone just knows me as this funny guy who falls over a lot," he smirked at the giggle Rachel let loose, "I'm serious! They don't seem to understand that that's only part of me, I guess. They don't realize I'm capable of other things, or even that I'm not going to be some little kid forever." He let out a heavy breath through his nose, eyes meeting Rachel's as a silent invitation for her to speak.

"If you're so mature, why don't you just talk to Annabeth?" she smiled gently, scooting across the floor to sit at his side and wait patiently.

"I don't know," he finally concluded, "we haven't even been close since like," he shuddered, 'Middle school."

"So? She's a human being Percy. She get's C's on quizzes and has a retainer and spills coffee on her shirt every other week." Rachel laughed once again as Percy's eyebrows seemed to nearly touch his hairline due to his shocked expression.

"Besides, she's just a girl, and you talk to girl's all the time!"

He stared at her as if she had just insisted that she had just insisted that she had gills.

"I only talk to you. And _Piper_!"

"Look," Rachel said sternly, "I didn't want to be the first person to tell you this, but Piper is hot." She kept her poker face intact, despite the smile threatening to crack her façade. "She's like, Teen Vogue-level hot."

"How do YOU know that?"

"I'm not blind, dude. That, and we used to practice kissing together in eighth grade."

"You did _what?_ " His jaw had dropped so low that Rachel feared he would catch flies. She fixed him with a pointed glare.

"Look, the point is, you should talk to Annabeth one-on-one, and probably before she dies of exhaustion from whatever the student council is planning for prom." Rachel rubbed his shoulder in what she felt would be a reassuring manner, "And then you won't have to keep coming to me for advice."

"Alright, it's worth a shot." He smiled softly to himself, slinging his arm over her shoulder and crushing her to his side.

"Okay," she laughed, wheezing a bit from the pressure, "enough of that. Did you seriously come all down here to ask that, or is there something else too?"

"Well," Percy began sheepishly, "I kind of told mom that Piper could drive me home, and didn't realize that she left early today until after practice, so I was wondering…" he trailed off, slightly startled by Rachel's expression of terror. "What?"

"My dad had to drive out to Arlington for a meeting, I was going to call _you_ to drive!"

Percy gaped at her for a moment before snorting as obnoxiously as possible, quickly dissolving into mad giggling, and Rachel found it hard not to do the same for nearly three seconds before she joined them. Their peals of laughter and gasps reverberated against the cinderblock walls, making the room seem to be filled with a whole group of people rather than just the two of them, laughing like idiots on the floor of the office.

"Okay," Percy managed to calm himself down enough to breathe for a second, "It's almost seven now, and we can just take the thirty minute walk back to the bus station and crash at my place."

"Your mom will be okay with that?" Rachel teased.

"Ha ha," he rolled his eyes, "Come on, I'll let you have my bed," Percy rose swiftly to his feet and offered her his hand.

* * *

"You know", Rachel said innocently, breaking the silence after only their first five minutes of walking, "Neither of us have eaten yet."

Percy glanced at her. "So?"

"There's a McDonald's next to the bus station, right?" He nodded eagerly, and Rachel found herself laughing yet again, "Burger's and fries, my treat?"

He nodded before returning his gaze to the street in front of them. "Don't forget about the dam milkshakes." He mumbled, still smiling to himself.

" _Excuse_ me?"

"Sorry," he waved it off, "just some dumb inside joke."


	6. Triple Threat

**Dear Oracle,**

 **I think that one of my friends may have a crush on me, and no matter how childish it seems, I think that I might too? I'm no good at this.**

 **I'm really worried that if I do say something, then they won't believe me and I'll have blown my shot.**

 **I'm going to make my move tonight, wish me luck?**

* * *

"Well that's weird", Rachel wrinkled her nose, redirecting the desk fan to more directly propel cooler wind towards her face.

"Did you see your reflection again?" Octavian called from behind the copy machine.

"Shut up," She rolled her eyes, brows furrowing further, "I hope that thing eats another one of your shirt sleeves!"

Octavian scoffed from across the room, already standing up and eyeing her with a bored expression. It would have possibly bothered her more had his hair not been slicked upwards with sweat into half a dozen wheat-colored cowlicks. "What's so weird that you ad to bother me about it anyway?"

"Look," Rachel waved three separate letters in his general direction, beckoning him closer, "Three separate people asked the same question tonight!"

"I still can't believe that you get even two letters a week," Rachel fixed him with a pointed glare, and Octavian found himself suddenly very, _very_ nervous. "Look, I'm kidding."

"I know you are, but these people sure aren't." She sorted through the stack once more, shifting slightly to leave space for him on her piano bench (a generous gift from Will, the assistant drum major). He rolled his eyes at the satisfied hum she allowed when he did sit next to her.

"Well," he sighed, "let's hear it."

"You aren't going to interrupt me?"

"Not if you read fast enough, Grandma."

"Well," she cleared her throat, already straightening herself into the usual 'dramatic reading' position that he couldn't help but roll his eyes at, "I think that one of my friends _might_ have a crush on me, and no matter how childish it seems, I think that I might too."

And Octavian felt his heart hit the bench.

"I'm really worried that if I do say something, then they won't believe me and I'll have blown my shot."

And then his stomach.

"I'm going to make my move tonight, wish me luck?" She glanced at him through a section of hair that had escaped her braid, appraisingly.

"Do you have any idea who wrote them?" He chewed on the inside of his cheek and struggled to meet her in the eye. If this was how he died, his father would never let him live it down.

 **"** Of course, why do you think I read it to you?" She allowed the ghost of a smile to appear and reappear, long enough for Octavian to realize, _okay, she's fucking with me, and I'm about to die._ Octavian had a good run, at least. Someone should probably let his counselors know to tell the colleges he applied to about that when he dies tonight, to save the money and the effort of placing him. Maybe he should have rethought his priorities, god damn it.

"Octavian?"

"Please don't kill me?" He blurted out.

She rolled her eyes yet again, "You didn't hear me, did you?"

"Not a damn word," he nodded, "but I am considering jumping out of that window."

"We're above the rosebushes."

"I'm aware."

"Well," Rachel smiled awkwardly, shuffling and re-shuffling her letters, "I asked if you were sure." Her voice had risen very slightly, so very little that he knew he would have only noticed had he been listening for it.

He blinked once, twice. "Sure about what now?"

"Making your move on," she coughed, "um, me?"

"Well, I, um," His mouth kept opening and closing, as if it were moving faster than he could speak, "I mean- No!"

He backpedaled quickly once he saw the confused expression on Rachel's face, the one she always gave him when he complained about dropping his glassed into the paper shredder (okay, he knew that she hated his war on the office equipment, but at this point, nothing could be a coincidence).

"Look its just," he made an aggressive hand gesture that looked almost like a bird with its feet tied together, "How can you be so calm about this?"

Rachel shrugged, steadying herself with her hands spread on the desk as she stood. "I'm going to get a coke, so you've got about five minutes to calm down yourself, alright?" Octavian gaped at her as she calmly strode towards the door.

"And dude," she smiled at him from the doorway, "do you ever think about the fact that we're alone together, in a large building, after dark, literally twice a week?" He felt his chin practically resting against his chest, eyes following the redhead as she _skipped_ out of the office. For a moment, he could make out the thunder outside as it shook the metal supports of the basketball courts.

He had five minutes to himself before Rachel came back.

Yeah, Octavian was going to die young.

* * *

"Dude" Leo giggled, actually giggled, from where he lay sprawled across his bed, "Dude, that's so gross."

"You wanted to know, dude," Nico shrugged, smiling lazily when he realized that Leo couldn't see him from the other end of the bed. He batted at the empty cigarette box Leo had dropped on the comforter when they arrived (I'm not using them dude, come on, it's just something to carry with me, promise).

"But come on, could you actually imagine Frank and your _sister_ doing that. You must have heard it wrong."

Nico shuddered and kicked him in the shoulder. "What else would it have been?"

"Mrs. O'Leary eating spaghettios?"

"Okay, you're disgusting, you know that?"

Leo propped himself up on his elbows, the angle giving him a tremendous number of chins and looking Nico almost square in the eye, "You love me, shut up."

"You have no proof of that, you shut up." The younger boy rolled onto his stomach to pout in Leo's direction. "Besides, I thought we agreed we wouldn't say 'I love you' until our sixth month mark."

"You know, it's shit like that that makes people think we're dating."

Nico waved his hand through the air. "Let them talk, we're in a league of our own over here."

"Amen, dude."

"Alright, alright, shut up, it's my turn," Nico snickered at him, "Who was- who was that girl you met at the baseball game?"

"Callie?" Leo laughed, pressing his face into the crook of his elbow, and, in a new development, halfheartedly swatting at Nico's foot, which had wound up in his lap.

"Yeah," Nico nodded, "what happened to you guys?"

Leo's face contorted in to something similar to the pain Nico would expect to accompany after someone stepped on your foot. "Well, guess we're doing the serious questions then?"

"Always."

"It's really simple," Leo cracked his knuckles before drumming them in Nico's ankle, "She was into me, I was into her, She wanted to do it, and I didn't." He smiled to himself, eyes flickering towards Nico, waiting for him to chime in again.

"I thought that you said that you guys already fooled around after the Valentine's party at Jason's?"

Leo eyed him suspiciously, "I thought you said you weren't going to go?"

"He asked me to, what was I supposed to do?"

Leo waggled his eyebrows.

"Shut up, you're changing the subject again!"

"There's not much to say, I swear," He returned to tapping out rhythms onto Nico's leg, and Nico ignored the tickling sensation long enough to roll his eyes first, "It's just, I couldn't make myself enjoy it like she was, and I didn't think it was fair," He cocked an eyebrow, "is that good enough for you?"

"Course it is, but you just seemed like, I don't know."

"Like what?"

"Like the guy who'd go for it, I mean- you liked her so much a few month ago, right?"

"Well yeah, but I think it was probably for the best, man. She had this huge thing for you in ninth grade, by the way." Leo smirked and shook his head.

"You're _kidding_."

"Nope, dead serious," he held his hands up and laughed along with Nico, "I told her later that that was probably the only thing we had left in common."

And suddenly, no one was laughing. No one was laughing because Leo had just sucked in a silent breath so quickly that it sounded more like a whistle, because Nico had stopped wriggling in his place and instead opted to stare up at his friend (he would say best friend but that didn't seem right, not now). The muffled sound of Gerard Way's voice still rang out from one of their phones. The rain outside was so loud that Nico could practically feel the vibrations in his teeth.

"You said that out loud."

"Realizing now, thanks for that." Leo was still looking straight into his eyes and Nico realized that he was staring too.

"You used past tense."

"I'm not sure what the words coming out of your mouth mean right now," Leo confessed.

"You said you had a crush on me in ninth grade," Nico pointed out.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"What was the question?"

"Did you," Nico cleared his throat, " _when_ did you get over it?"

"It's my turn to ask a question, remember," Leo's brown eyes were very, very wide and his hands were still shaking next to Nico's foot, "so I want to ask first."

"Yeah," Nico nodded at him, head resting precariously on his arms (he knew they were the only thing keeping his jaw clamped shut tight, damn it).

"What are you thinking right now?"

Your hands are warm, Nico wanted to say, your hands are so warm and I'm not sure why everything is so hot all of the sudden and I can't feel my fingers right now, your thoughts?

"Your eyes are nice," Nico blurted out.

"Thanks, I guess?" Leo spoke slowly.

"Okay, I mean, what do you want me to say?" Nico asked, and half of him honestly hoped that Leo would at least say something that sounded like a suggestion.

Leo half-laughed, so Nico figured that couldn't exactly be a _bad_ sign. "I told Piper that I couldn't do this, you know."

"What were you going to do?"

"I wasn't, I mean," Leo held his hands up in mock-surrender, "I invited you over to eat pizza and watch star wars, I promise, cause you do know it's a tragedy if I ever saw one that you haven't seen it."

"Leo."

"I'm getting there, shut up. So look tonight," Leo idly chewed on one of his fingernails, "she thought that I should tell you and then do something to 'seal the deal'."

"That sounds like her, yeah," Nico tried to sound encouraging instead of concentrating on how flushed his face must be.

"She said that cause I wanted to kiss you," Leo nodded to himself, "so there's that, too, but I don't think I should."

Nico had never felt so simultaneously excited and offended in his entire life. "Why the hell wouldn't you?"

"What?" Leo looked up, suddenly.

"I mean," he shrugged and scoffed, "We're friends and you can't stand the thought of kissing me?"

"Are you seriously starting this conversation _right now_?"

Nico knew he was blushing even more, but pressed on. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Wow, um," Leo just shrugged and slipped a bit back into their usual banter (which had existed quite peacefully until Nico had to ask a stupid question that had gotten them into this cluster fuck that made him feel like he was going to die), "maybe it'll ruin everything."

"So you won't do it cause you're scared." Nico deadpanned, even though he felt pretty much the same way bout this situation.

"You're making me sound like a dick here," Leo frowned.

"What if I die?" Nico wondered aloud, finally meeting those enormous brown eyes once again.

"What."

"What if I die, and you never kissed me, and then we never kissed and I'm dead?"

Leo's brow furrowed, "you probably shouldn't talk like that, what if you jinx it?"

It was late, so very late, and Nico couldn't keep his mouth shut. "What if I do then, and you still never did?" He rolled back slowly to sit in front of Leo with his legs folded, staring intently. "I could die right now."

"Dude, shut up," Leo rose to face him.

"I could totally die and you'll never know if it was worth it," Nico was being dramatic, he was being so dramatic and he knew it but this was Leo in his face and sharing the air between them and nothing else mattered.

"I have no idea if you're being serious, you know," Leo muttered.

"You'll never find out if you don't go for it," Nico held his gaze, ready to keep pressing, to keep pushing for his point but.

Suddenly, Leo surged forward and then Nico's point didn't seem to matter anymore. The kiss was so freaking _warm,_ it was Leo's nose pressed into his cheek and Nico's hands snaking up to grip his shoulders and their lips moving so softly that Nico felt that he was right, he could die in this moment, right here.

Nico felt his back hit the mattress and the awkward sensation of a wrist in the crook of his elbow before Leo adjusted himself after what felt like eons later. His lips felt so tingly and blistering hot but all of the sudden everything was too warm, Leo's hand linking with his and it was so _much_. He tapped quickly on Leo's back, tugging at the hem of his t-shirt and feeling his eyes widen when Leo finally took the hint, getting his shirt stuck over his head and around his elbows when it was nearly halfway.

And no matter how hard he laughed, Nico thought back to what he had said about dying in this moment, right here, on Leo's sheets with the rain drumming on the roof, and he laughed even harder.

"What's so funny?" Leo frowned slightly, digging his fingers into Nico's hips to slot their bodies together again, head dipping down so their noses rested against each other.

"Nothing," Nico laughed, "I was right, though."


	7. Annabeth the Catburglar

"You know, the door was probably locked for a reason."

The voice behind Annabeth nearly shocked her out of her skin, and scraps of rational thoughts darted behind her eyes. She was going to get so many detentions, no, _suspensions_ , what would her mother say? There was no way that the principal could ignore the school's (possible? Annabeth felt optimistic) salutatorian digging into the office lock with a hair pin four hours after school let out for the weekend.

"I'm guessing there isn't any point in saying this isn't what it looks like?" She asked meekly.

"You're not picking the lock to Mr. D's office?"

Annabeth felt the knot in her gut loosen; the voice behind her definitely belonged to a student, if they didn't call Mr. D by his full title of vice principal. "It sounds ugly when you say it like that." She rose from her crouch as she spoke. Behind her, a familiar set of red painted lips smiled at her, illuminated by a phone flashlight.

"I'm guessing you must have a good reason for breaking and entering, then?"

Annabeth smiled but held her hands up on either side of her head. "You caught me."

"I never quite took you for a criminal, Chase." Rachel Dare spoke easily, eyeing her up and down with mock disapproval. The expression would have suited her mother better, without the chunky earrings and pencil stuck behind one ear.

"Looks can be deceiving," Annabeth shrugged, "shouldn't you be home?"

"Editing ran late. What's your excuse?"

Annabeth glared accusingly at the door and made a halfhearted gesture with one hand meant to convey reluctant defeat. "I left my planner in Coach Hedge's class during chem, and thought I could handle it myself, which hasn't been working too well."

"So you're going to break into Mr. D's office why, exactly?"

"He has the keys to the rooms in the west wing." Annabeth admitted. Rachel arched an eyebrow and let out a low whistle. It wasn't a secret that Annabeth's parents both worked for schools in their district, so it really wouldn't be a stretch to picture her, keys in hand, roaming the hallways after hours with free rein, but placing Annabeth _herself_ in that image took some effort.

"Deadass? And people think you're some kind of rule-follower." Rachel shook her head in amazement. Annabeth laughed and leaned forward to gather her backpack. "You are going about this from a pretty complicated angle, just so you know." Rachel added, almost an afterthought.

Annabeth rose to her feat easily, lips pursed. "How's that?"

"The pool is indoors, so swim practice wasn't cancelled for the storm. You're smart enough to put together the rest, I'm assuming?" Rachel took a sip from her coke, eyeing Annabeth innocently.

"It's nearly seven."

"Hedge likes to stay with the captains for a while after practice."

"Piper Mclean?" Annabeth had had classes with Piper in middle school, along with clear memories of her dressing up as a dragon with Leo Valdez for Halloween all three years. She could handle this, no problem.

"And Percy, since he's usually there to give her a ride or whatever," Rachel gauged her reaction carefully, and Annabeth hoped that she hadn't seen the moment of hesitation she had experienced while unlocking her phone one-handed. This wasn't a problem, but Annabeth had to remind herself momentarily of the image of Percy in his swim trunks.

Percy Jackson was a bit of a mystery to Annabeth, but not the kind there were books written about. She had some memories of them running in similar circles since around fifth grade, coming close but never quite meeting outside of some rushed interactions up through middle school. Adolescence hadn't spared him the acne and gangly awkwardness that it offered to all who encountered it, sure, but as far as Annabeth figured, he was still the nice boy who had offered her his blue pen in their first shared science class in exchange for her goldfish.

The brief memory she had of catching a view of him during swim practice had thrown her for a loop, to say the least.

"Are you surprised or something?" Rachel was watching her, eyes bright and barely concealing laughter.

Annabeth realized with a start that she still hadn't said anything. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Of course, yeah, Percy he's -Percy's amazing," she swallowed again, _why was this happening_ , "at um, swimming, I mean. It's great how he's a captain this year, right?"

"Sounds like it." Rachel wasn't laughing at her _outright_ , but the effort to refrain from doing so was clearly visible. "Come on, I'll walk you down."

"You don't mind?"

"Nah, Octavian can handle a few more minutes without me." She winked after she spoke and turned on her heel, strolling down the poorly lit hallway that led out to the school's courtyard. Annabeth nearly had to jog to keep up with her, despite her longer legs. Rachel was clearly much more confident navigating the school at night, and Annabeth had to wonder just how much time she spent alone with Octavian after school. She had caught him in their freshman year tech class arguing with a pencil sharpener, but everyone tended to shy away from him since the capture the flag incident later the same year where Dakota Hollis had caught a heel in the stomach.

"So, it's just the two of you here tonight?" She asked casually.

"Yeah, just sorting through the last of the week's entries for the Oracle." Rachel took long strides, sipping from her Coke. "You ever read the letters?"

Annabeth shook her head, not thinking it fit to lie. The New Roman Times was mostly popular among theatre and art students, with smaller followings peppered throughout the school (no doubt thanks to Rachel, rather than her partner). Annabeth skimmed the occasional copy Reyna picked up on her way to lunch, but never further than the first page.

Rachel shrugged. "Yeah, there's a lot of fluff, even for me. But the Oracle's the best part, if you ask me. You'd be amazed to see what kind of stuff people write in."

"I thought it was all anonymous?"

"It's a high school, it may actually kill people to be anonymous," Rachel shrugged, though she seemed to be weighing her words carefully, "besides, its not too difficult to figure out who people are talking about when they write in."

"It's that easy?" Annabeth was curious now, if only for how Rachel seemed to be stepping carefully over an unseen topic that lay at the heart of their conversation with great care.

"You'd be surprised at what lengths people will go to for advice about something important to them."

"I guess so." Annabeth spoke with a practiced hesitancy acquired from years of debate club practice and rehearsed English presentations. "Anything good come up this week?"

"You know I'd be betraying some kind of confidentiality if I told you, right?"

Annabeth turned to her, eyebrows raised. "What kinds of letters are you getting that require a confidentiality agreement?"

"You know, just the usual murder confessions and waxing romantic poems. Nothing too scandalous." Rachel snickered to herself while Annabeth felt her shoulders relax the slightest bit. The two walked in comfortale silence down another corridor while the sound of the storm outside reverberated over the metal roof.

"Well, guess that's to be expected."

"Yeah, I feel like we need to give Percy some kind of a frequent use card or something."

Annabeth could sense the mistake before Rachel could even finish her sentence. It didn't quite stop her in her tracks, but if the falter in Rachel's usually confident march-like walk was anything to go by, she'd just let her in on something that Annabeth was definitely _not_ supposed to know. Rachel was staring decidedly ahead when Annabeth glanced over to make sure she had heard her correctly, jaw clenched tight and eyes flashing.

"What?"


End file.
